Arroyo’s Seafront Revitalization was conceived as part of an open innovation initiative between the School of Architecture of The Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico and The Puerto Rico Tourism Company. The conceptual design process began at the School of Architecture, where students and professors developed ideas and urban strategies that later became public policy projects in their own right.  ERBa Arquitectos, (formerly known as ERERAS Arquitectos) was selected to be in charge of the project.   The conceptual ideas and urban guides developed, along with the students, were implemented and utilized.

 

Arroyo’s Seafront Revitalization was based upon the strategic recognition of three particular opportunities: the visual importance of the existing seafront, a direct and physical connection to the coast and to establish an economic and cultural space.

 

Our way of understanding and developing the proposed architecture and planning of the seafront was to create a catalyst space where various operational and strategic moves such as reconnecting the landscape to the context, making the sea the protagonist through the vanishing of the divisive edge to the water, and the providing an urban morphology capable of integrating the cultural and economic possibilities of the place.